Her mother took an extended trip to Europe to escape the pain of her failed marriage, leaving Ananda and Lakshmi with their grandmother.

During the talent portion of the competition, Lewis performed a dance routine, which she had choreographed herself, to Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney's ballad "Ebony and Ivory".

After her win, Lewis attracted the attention of a talent agent and began working in local theater productions and on television.

[4][5] While a student at Howard University in 1993, Lewis was featured prominently in the hit R&B video by fellow HU alumni Shai, "Baby, I'm Yours",[6] filmed on campus.

She was considering attending graduate school to pursue a master's degree in education when she learned that auditions were going to be held for the job of on-screen host of BET's Teen Summit.

The show's topical, debate-driven format enabled Lewis to follow her passion for helping young people, and use her skills she had acquired at the performing-arts school in San Diego.

[4] In 1996, on an installment of the show entitled "It Takes a Village", Lewis interviewed then-First Lady Hillary Clinton, whose book with that title had been published earlier in the year.

The thought of leaving Teen Summit was painful for her; indeed, several sources quoted her as recalling that she "cried for three weeks" while pondering her choices.

[4] In opting to move to MTV, the deciding factor was the possibility of greatly increasing the size of her viewing audience and the potential for influencing America's youth.

On one notable installment of Hot Zone, she berated the rapper Q-Tip about the number of scantily clad dancers in one of his videos.

[4] In a reference to Lewis's broadcasting savvy, Bob Kusbit, MTV's senior vice president for production, told Douglas Century for The New York Times on November 21, 1999, "In the past our talent was sometimes just pretty people who could read cue cards.

[4] In 2001 Lewis earned another NAACP Image Award, for her hosting of the MTV special True Life: I Am Driving While Black.

"In the last year, Ms. Lewis has emerged as the hip-hop generation's reigning 'It Girl,' meaning she is not just an MTV personality but a woman whose looks and attitudes have made her perpetually in demand.

Lewis's series which was syndicated by King World Productions, targeted women between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four by addressing such issues as domestic violence and breast cancer; it was billed as an alternative to the sensationalism and provocative offerings of Jerry Springer and Ricki Lake, whose talk shows were then dominating daytime ratings.

[4] In the spring of 2005, she interviewed Paris Hilton, Dylan Ryder, Don Cheadle, Ryan Phillippe, and actress Dyan Cannon.

[8] An avid animal lover, Lewis has served as co-host of the A&E television-network show America's Top Dog and as a spokesperson for the Humane Society.